The next Flintstones animated feature will star a number of WWE wrestlers, for reasons that aren't entirely clear (but are almost certainly lucrative).

Over the past decade Vince McMahon's professional wrestling empire has moved slightly away from faux grappling, toward more general purpose entertainment. The WWE is still the cornerstone of McMahon's billion-dollar media company, but it's not uncommon to see the company's logo attached to mainstream Hollywood movies. Most recently, The Call, a thriller starring legitimate Hollywood star Halle Berry.

In an effort to further expand McMahon's Hollywood aspirations, the WWE has announced plans to join forces with legendary animation studio Hanna Barbara for an upcoming, as yet untitled feature film based on The Flintstones. According to Deadline, the flick will feature a number of WWE personalities, including McMahon (known in the movie as "Vince McMagma"), John Cena (aka "John Cenastone"), and CM Punk ("CM Punkrock").

The film is currently slated - Get it? "Slate?" Like the mineral? No? Philistines. - for release in 2015. Currently it appears that the movie will be a direct-to-video release, with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment handling distribution duties for DVD, Blu-ray and video on demand iterations of the flick.

As Deadline points out, it seems a massively missed opportunity for this film to leave out a character based on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but since Mr. Johnson is currently starring in the massively successful Fast And The Furious 6 - a film that amazingly boasts the highest opening weekend box office take in Universal Studios history - he's probably a bit out of the budget assigned to this animated feature.

As for why the WWE is involved, the answer's simple: McMahon wants the film wing of his company to appeal to the same young people who might also follow the WWE. "WWE is family-friendly entertainment, so partnering with Warner Bros. on a Flintstones/WWE project was a natural extension of our Scooby Doo deal," states WWE Studios president Michael Luisi. "This new, animated feature allows us to showcase our brand with young fans and loyal Flintstones enthusiasts alike."

While all of this makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, it raises one important question: They're still making movies based on The Flintstones? How is that possible? Some of you have reproduced at some point, so are your kids into The Flintstones? It was only vaguely popular when I was young, so the fact that it still exists as a viable media entity is blowing my mind.

Vince McMagma is really the only one that I like of those names. CM Punk I would go with "CM Pumice" and for John Cena...I'm tempted to go with "John Indestructible Obsidian of the Gods," but I'll actually say "John Chamrockite".

Earnest Cavalli:Some of you have reproduced at some point, so are your kids into The Flintstones? It was only vaguely popular when I was young, so the fact that it still exists as a viable media entity is blowing my mind.

The Flinstones didn't interest any of my peers in the early 90's, so I can't imagine it holding up for kids these days. I mean, Boomerang's popular with the kids as far as I can tell, but as soon as the old Hanna Barbara stuff comes on they usually tune out.

I have a seven-year-old brother who enjoys Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo but that's about as far as he goes with it.

The Great JT:Vince McMagma is really the only one that I like of those names. CM Punk I would go with "CM Pumice" and for John Cena...I'm tempted to go with "John Indestructible Obsidian of the Gods," but I'll actually say "John Chamrockite".

vid87:This can only turn out like the time the animator for Ren & Stimpy did an OVA for Yogi Bear where BooBoo goes crazy.

And that was glorious. Anyway, I'm a fan of the WWE, but I'm having a hard time seeing the return this will get. I think this may be an extension of when The Rock called John Cena "Fruity Pebbles." The crowd loved it so much that a partnership deal was made to put John Cena on the actual Fruity Pebbles box. It was smart marketing because it helped the Rock/Cena feud by giving Rock more ammo for his legendary promos while Fruity Pebbles got to be exposed to a demographic their cereal usually doesn't appeal to. Everybody won.

This, well, I've got no clue. It won't convert any new WWE fans, nor do I see it selling more copies for Hanna Barbara. Oh well, it won't hurt anyone and it gives MovieBob another obscure cameo to add to the pile. You know, I wonder if he's ever thought about doing a Big Picture about wrestler cameos in cartoons.